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First of all, what is Femtocell? Think of it as a low-powered telecommunications tower/base station that’s sits right in your home/office. Why would you need it? It will help users in areas where the signal is weak or non-existent. If there’s no signal, how does this work then? It uses your broadband to transmit and receive your calls, SMS, data and everything that you do with your current phone line. Is it only for smartphones then? Nope, the mobile base station works like a mini tower. As for Maxis’s Sure Signal service to work, you need to have a Maxis account and you need to make sure your devices, including feature phones, support 3G connections.
Femtocell technology is not new and the first iterations have been around since 2007. The common type of femtocell used everywhere is called small cell. In Malaysia, Maxis actually started testing this out back in 2012 and may have started its trial service the following year. Celcom was trying this out at one point and in 2011, even U Mobile tried to get in on the action but we’ve yet to see the end results of those programs.
Taking a look at the positive side, the Sure Signal service from Maxis will help to enhance your 3G mobile signal no matter where you are. As long as you have a broadband connection with speeds of at least 1 Mbps download and 512 kbps upload, you’re good to go. Another added advantage that femtocell users will notice is the extra battery life from their mobile devices. With full signal strength at wherever you are located, the phones would not have to keep looking for the best signal to connect to.
Maxis currently has two different types of small cell base stations:
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4-channel small cell (Model Number 9361): Covers an area of 10 metres and can support up to 4 people at any one time. - Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.8-channel small cell (Model Number 9362): This one covers an area of 20 metres and supports up to 8 people at any given time.
The mobile base station units above have auto-power reduction feature where its power consumption will be reduced if there’s a stronger coverage from outdoors. This feature also works to reduce interference issues between the outer and inner base stations.
Moving on to the negative part, as mentioned earlier, the small cell units will use your data connection to make calls, SMS and everything else that you can do with your 3G devices. As such, this will eat up your allocated monthly quota from your broadband service provider. Even on standby, these devices will constantly transmit/receive data to ensure a valid connection but they are very minimal and would account to about 350 MB a month.
In use, a typical 2 minute call will use up about 36 MB a month. Now, take that and multiply by the number of minutes or hours of calls made daily by one person, and then multiply that by the number of channels available. This is why small cell users in many other countries get discounts and some even get a waiver on certain data packages. Unfortunately in Malaysia, you will still have to pay for your own broadband as well as for the power consumed by these devices. You’re basically doing what the service providers should be doing in the first place and there’s no mention of cut-backs or perks for you to do this. The bad icing on this bitter cake? You will need to sign up for a 24-month contract to try these out. You can find out more from the FAQ section of the Sure Signal site or you can also submit a request from the feedback form.
Now, if those terms/conditions sound like a fair trade for a really good connection, you can then proceed. Please note that Maxis has classified this service as trial, and other terms and conditions may change over time. The best thing to do is to contact them to find out if you are eligible to sign up. For additional info about femtocell in Malaysia, you can also check out MCMC’s GUIDELINE FOR USAGE OF FEMTOCELL ACCESS POINT DEVICE AND SMART REPEATER pdf document.
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